Teresa Benitez-Thompson

About Teresa

I’m running to fight for our families, for our community, and for our way of life.

My journey here starts when I was a teenager, and my little sister found herself pregnant. My sister was a good student and wanted to raise her baby while staying committed to school. But she needed more support than our mom, who was a waitress, could provide.

She needed support from things like food assistance programs. Those programs were life changing for us, but they came under threat. Work or job-search requirements to qualify for those benefits would have meant that my sister had to drop out of school. We knew that would only lead down a cycle of poverty.

So we got involved with a small group of women who were advocating for change, to make school work qualify for food assistance. That group eventually became the Nevada Empowered Women’s Project. We went down to testify at the legislature, but my sister felt too intimidated to testify. So I went up and spoke for our family. They changed the law, and my sister was able to get the assistance she needed to get a degree while raising her son (who I’m so happy and proud to have seen grown up and now get to see as a young adult around town!).

This gave me the zeal for organizing and social justice, and I never stopped. I volunteered with groups like PLAN while I pursued education I could use to help the community. I waitressed to help pay for my undergraduate degree at Nevada, then winning Miss Nevada and third runner up Miss America helped me afford a master’s degree in social work from Michigan.

My main professional career has been as a social worker, arranging adoptive families for special needs children, then a decade of work supporting terminally ill patients. Advocating for others drove me to run for state assembly in 2010; where I spent 12 years working on issues that matter to families, seniors, workers, and the Northern Nevada region as a whole. I was proud to serve multiple terms as Majority Leader of the assembly.

After being termed out of the legislature, I had the opportunity to serve as Chief of Staff to Attorney General Aaron Ford. In this position, I got to use my skills in public policy and government to help fight for Nevadans’ legal protections, including the work combatting the Trump Administration’s policies this last year (that has felt like a decade).

Now, though, we have a chance to make a change to get real representation for Northern Nevada, and to fight for families and affordability, and against Trump, where it matters most: Congress – that’s why I’m running.

I live in old Southwest Reno with my husband, our dogs, birds, and three or four children, depending on if my oldest daughter is in her dorm or not. We love getting outside and hiking or taking the dogs out. I love our mountain winters and I’m so glad when they’re over. Funny side note: You’ll never see my husband in my campaign materials, but I promise you, he’s there! It’s because of his job with a TV station here – he can’t appear to endorse anyone, though I’m sure hoping I have his vote.